Daily Archives: January 14, 2013

Jones’ situation is much more serious because not only could spinal stenosis cut short his NFL career, it could potentially leave him in a wheelchair.

If his stenosis is a serious concern, I just hope medical doctors can talk Jones into walking away from the NFL and going back to Georgia to continue his education.

… I’d have to say that on a suckitude scale of 1-10 (ten being ultimate suckitude), the scenario of doctors talking Jones into walking away from the NFL after he’s already given up his college eligibility to pursue his dream would come in at about an eight.

You’ve probably heard about the amazing number of juniors leaving LSU early for the glory and riches of the NFL draft, but you may not have gotten the entire story.

The NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement, which was signed in 2011, cut into the gap in pay for rookies drafted in the top rounds and lower rounds. That has created more reason to jump even when a player’s draft stock could be improved with another season.

“More and more you are going to see middle-round juniors entering the draft because of the new pay scale from the new CBA,” Detillier said. “As a third or fourth round pick, you can make between $350,000 to $500,000 with a signing bonus. And it’s not worth it financially to stay another year in college to go up a round because the money is about the same. LSU is just one of the first real test cases where you had an extremely talented junior class. There will be others like this from other schools in the future.” [Emphasis added.]

Miles may try to spin this as being a sign of success for his program, but if LSU tumbles a bit next season as a result of the departures, let’s see if he’s as sanguine about it then.

My bet is that if this trend continues, you’ll start hearing coaches at the major programs talk more about paying their players.

Wilson is getting a one-year contract for less money than he was making at Mississippi State. Granted, he has less responsibility now than he did, but the reality is that he’s taken a pay cut to move to Athens and he’s working on a year-to-year basis. Nevertheless, he seems pretty happy with the change of venue (and it sure didn’t take him long to decide).

Meanwhile, Bobo has a resume that outstrips his compensation.

Bobo coordinated and called plays this past season for an offense that set school records for touchdowns, scoring average and total offense. He also serves as quarterbacks coach for Aaron Murray, who is the first player in SEC history to throw for more than 3,000 yards in three consecutive seasons and will obliterate every SEC passing record if he can avoid injury as a senior.

…

Bobo has been a steal for Georgia, too. Not including performance bonuses — and he has gotten a lot of those lately — Bobo makes $335,000 a year. That ranked 10th among SEC offensive coordinators coming into this past season. He also has operated with a one-year contract, while the majority of SEC offensive coordinators have two- to -three year deals.

Now, that’s getting reworked, but it’s noteworthy how casually outside suitors have been dismissed, both by the school and Bobo.

Georgia was already in the process of sweetening its deal with its sixth-year offensive coordinator when Virginia Tech sent a plane to Athens last week offering Bobo its coordinator’s position, according to a report out of Newport News, Va.

Bobo didn’t get on that plane. He was sitting with recruits at the Bulldogs’ basketball game against Mississippi State on Saturday and, by all accounts, plans to remain at UGA, his alma mater, for a while longer.

Jimmy Sexton considers that bad form.

In Bobo’s case, some of that could be attributed to loyalty to mama, but I think it’s fair to say for both coaches that you have to chalk a lot of this up to the man they work for. The irony here is that kind of loyalty saves McGarity money over the long haul. That in turn probably helps Richt’s job security. Funny how that works sometimes.

… I heard plenty about that dreadful prediction on Twitter from the moment the Tide’s butt-kicking of the Irish began. Then, I get to the coaches convention in Nashville a few hours later. I run into Vanderbilt coach James Franklin. He tells me about all of the hate mail and such that he received for having voted Notre Dame No. 4 in the USA Today coaches poll last month… Franklin said Vandy had played Wake Forest the week after Notre Dame did, so through film study, Franklin had become very familiar with the Irish and how good they actually were.

Give Franklin credit for not traveling with the herd there, but I think that’s little more than a case of the exception proving the rule.

Evidently Blair Walsh was on his way to figuring out what went wrong his senior year before Minnesota’s special teams coach got involved.

“Honestly I thought I was back once we started the workouts for the (NFL) Combine,” Walsh said. “I was able to figure out what was going on. I had a couple special teams coaches that I talk to tell me what they thought those flaws were. Once we felt the work at the combine and the workouts in Athens, I felt like I was back.”

That being said, Walsh has enough confidence in his coach to pay his way to the Pro Bowl this year.

One big question for the offseason is whether Richt can learn enough about special teams coaching to be there for his kickers in the tough times. Remember that Walsh suffered through a slump in his freshman year (you know whom I blame for that). He was tough enough to persevere and record two excellent seasons in his second and third years, but sagged badly in his senior season. And looking back, it seems like his coaching during the down periods was little more than “you’ll work through it, kid”.

“When we’re training I’ll be able to talk to him, and just sort of go over his season with him. And just talk about it,” Walsh said. “I was there for him during the year, and he texted me a few times, and we talked about his games. He’s a good kicker, and I think he’ll have a good career.”

That’s nice, and maybe that could turn out to be enough. After all, Richt’s had his share of kickers who could self-correct quite nicely. But what if that’s not how Morgan’s built?